WHAT IN THE WORLD...oh my!!!!!!

[oceaninabox]

I saw this creature on the back wall of one of my tanks and was amazed by it. It is about 2 inchs long. It's back side opens and closes exposing a boney like stucture. It moves like a snail but it appears to have a skelaton inside. Any clues? It is a pretty blue marbled color.

 

[CT FOOTBALL]

some sort of cowrie?

 

[acanman]

nudi right?

 

[Azurel]

It's either a cowery or a scutus.....

 

[mr_X]

very cool whatever it is!
i wish i know what it was and what it ate....i would be interested in keeping it!

 

[wicked demon]

its a key hole scutus, very cool color pattern!! reef safe algivore.

 

[I-K@ndY]

+1 on Cowery.. I have 3 of those on my 180g tank..

 

[650-IS350]

it's a form of cowrie. cool looking, I wonder what its real diet is

 

[ucantmakeme]

definately a scutus. And yes a very interesting color pattern. i ussually only see very dark brown or black morphs

 

[SaraB]

Very cool!

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Nice find Perry!

Let us know if it eats something important, lol

 

[awcasper]

Doesn't a cowrie have a an oval shell with a slit for an opening on the bottom?

I'm guessing some kind of limpet. Doesn't look like a keyhole limpet since I don't see a hole at the top on the shell.

HTH

 

[wireefman]

definately a scutus. And yes a very interesting color pattern. i ussually only see very dark brown or black morphs

i had a bunch of the black ones.... very nice find indeed

 

[ddiver]

Definitely a scutus...and a nice one at that..

 

[oceaninabox]

Very cool!!!!!

 

[GrouperGenius]

Hurry up and frag that sucker, I want one. LOL

 

[inactive]

ATTENTION REEF KEEPERS!!!


That thingy you have in your hands sir is called a scutus. Often mistaken for MANY things. One of them is reef/coral safe. Sure... harmless cool little creature right? Heck, some flatworms are awesome looking, but the fact of the matter is they are no good.

The LFS I worked for last year had them spawn in their systems. Being the only LFS in the area just about everyone had them in their systems. Sure, they eat algae.. they will clean up your rocks... but be careful!!!

I started noticing interesting patterns on my SPS... looked like white graffiti of death on my corals.. Hm, I look online.. of course I find nothing. I never found much information on the scutus themselves either. Scutus are nocturnal for the most part so you can find them every where in your tank at night if you have them!

So I take a flashlight and what do I see... scutus on one of my millipora. I figured the scutus was just crawling over it like any dumb invert with one large foot... *shrug*

The strange maze/graffiti pattern I saw was forming before my very eyes... This scutus was literally sucking the life out of my SPS with precision. I had problems keeping small SPS frags at the time and I figured it was my own stupidity. Curious to confirm 100% it was the scutus eating my SPS I let it do its thing... It was definitely eating the SPS!

So I start removing them as I see them every night. The last one I pulled off was eating ACAN LORDS!

Everyone says they are reef safe etc etc and claims to know a lot about them yet this is one of THEE most unidentified inverts I see posts and question about. Since most information is juggled on the internet without 99% of those people actually dealing with that themselves, I test a lot of stuff for myself.

My conclusion: Scutus eat coral.


Scutus removal!!!

-Get your screw drivers out. These things are almost impossible to peel off due to intense suction when startled. Most of the time you will have to pry them off.... I throw them right in the trash.

Beautiful creature, but deadly to SPS IME.

/2cents.